Kiss Me In The Rain
by Deadly Poppy
Summary: You are 90 percent of the reason I get up in the morning," he told her matter-of-factly. "What's the other 10 percent?" she sniffled "Well, I usually need to pee when I wake up..." Fred tells Katie he's leaving Hogwarts. She doesn't take it well. Review!
1. Shut Up And Kiss Me

"You're leaving?"

Fred prepared himself for an angry outburst. He braced himself against her wrath. He was ready for yelling and cursing and possibly even hitting.

In short, Fred expected Katie to be…well, Katie.

"You're leaving?" Katie repeated. Fred could tell the shock was about to wear off, and he steeled himself against a wave of emotional overload.

Fred watched closely as Katie's face changed from shock to anger. She clenched her fists, narrowed her eyes, and planted her feet.

Then Katie collapsed, sobbing, into Fred's arms.

Stunned, Fred took a moment to respond, After the initial shock blew over, he wrapped his arms tentatively around Katie, and the sudden realization of just how small and fragile she was hit him.

It was a strange feeling, love. Fred had known Katie all his life. He had watched her sass teachers and duel his twin brother. He had witnessed with his own eyes how she followed potions instructions in reverse order just to make Snape made. He had even heard her let off a stream of curses that would have made his mother's ears bleed. But suddenly it hit him just how…well, _tiny _she was. As if the littlest breeze could knock her over.

Tightening his arms around her petite figure, Fred kissed her forehead. "Don't be sad," he pleaded. "It won't be that bad. I promise I'll visit. Every Hogsmeade weekend. And we'll write all the time. Come on, please don't cry."

Sniffled, Katie swallowed hard and said something incoherent against Fred's chest.

"What was that, Katie?" he asked, trying to will her tears to dry.

"It won't be the same," Katie repeated. "You'll be out there, in the real world, a successful business owner. You'll make loads of money, and meet hundreds of girls. You won't want a girlfriend who's still in school."

Fred froze. "Is that what you think?" he asked, but it came out as a whisper.

Katie didn't respond. Fred loosened his hold on her and tilted her head back so he could look into her eyes. "I will always want you," he informed her. "I love you."

With those three words, Katie fell apart again, falling against Fred's chest with a dull thud, and he caught her just before she slid to the ground.

"Do you?" Katie asked, so quietly it was nearly inaudible, between sobs that were muffled by Fred's chest. He was vaguely aware that she was ruining his shirt, but at this point the didn't caring about anything but drying her tears. Fred had always thought that if he died during this war, it would take at least ten Death Eaters to take him down. It turns out all it really took was watching Katie's heart break and knowing he had caused it.

"Of course I do," Fred replied stroking her hair as she cried. "I thought you knew that. Katherine Elizabeth Bell, you are 90 percent of the reason I get out of bed in the morning."

"What's the other 10 percent?" Katie sniffled.

"Well, I usually have to pee when I wake up…"

Katie laughed in spite of herself.

"Furthermore," Fred continued seriously, talking into her hair. "I am doing this for you. I fully intend to marry you one day, Katie, and I have to do it properly, now don't I?"

Katie looked up at Fred, her eyes glistening with the tears she was trying not to let go. At that moment, a single raindrop his Katie's cheek. Within seconds, her and Fred were standing in a full-on downpour.

"We should go inside," Fred murmured. "Or you'll catch cold."

"Wait," Katie said desperately. "If you're leaving, and with Umbridge taking away Hogsmeade privileges left and right, this may be the last time we see each other until summer. Alone, I mean."

"And we have to spend it in the rain?" Fred asked, confused.

Katie rolled her eyes. "Boys," she muttered under her breath. Then she grinned up at Fred. "Just shut up and kiss me."

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**Disclaimer: This is one.**

**AN: I love Katie and Fred. They are so cute together. Maybe I'll make this a full story, or maybe I'll just leave it a one-shot. Not sure yet. If you like it, review, and it may inspire me! Also, story alert it in case I do continue, which I think I might.**


	2. Unbreakable

"Katie?"

Katie turned her head almost imperceptibly in Alicia's direction, but her gaze remained locked on something outside the window.

Alicia hesitated. Then, taking a deep breath, she said slowly, "Fred told me to give you this, after…" She faltered, unable to finish her sentence. She thrust the small package towards her friend.

Katie didn't move, just kept staring out the window. The silence was almost deafening in its prominence. It was just…there.

"You see that cloud?" Katie asked suddenly, so quiet and soft, but so sudden in the middle of the painful silence that it reminded Alicia of a still, placid lake, suddenly disturbed by a fish jumping out of the water. "That grayish one, just there?"

Alicia peered out the window, straining her eyes, but it became increasingly clear that she was studying the window to see something that wasn't there.

Before she could say this out loud, however, Katie answered her own question. "Of course you can't. It disappeared. It was just there, though. Just there, below that bigger one. A lingering puff of smoke that hadn't quite left. Only now it has."

Truthfully, Alicia was a bit worried that Katie was staring at clouds that didn't actually exist. But really, she just wanted her to be alright. "Uh, here," she said, trying to give Katie the package again, wishing she didn't have to hold it. Even though she had no idea what was in it, Alicia felt like she was intruding just by touching it. Like it was something special between Katie and Fred, and she shouldn't be holding it.

At this Katie turned, and Alicia saw that her eyes were puffy and red. This shocked Alicia more than anything else Katie could have done, although it probably shouldn't have. It was perfectly logical to cry when you wouldn't see your boyfriend for months. But Katie never cried. Not in front of anyone at least. Alicia had always been sort of in awe of Katie's strength. She had envied her independence and her willpower.

She had watched Katie hear the news that her parents had died, and she hadn't even sniffled. But when Alicia thought harder, she remembered that she hadn't seen Katie for three hours after that.

As if reading Alicia's thoughts, Katie spoke, slowly but evenly, no trace of sadness in her voice, though her eyes told a different story. "You don't have to be unbreakable," she told Alicia, "if you can act like it."

Alicia had a sudden urge to throw her arms around her tiny companion. She wanted to tell her everything was going to be okay, that she didn't have to put on an act anymore. But she couldn't.

Something stopped Alicia from trying to comfort Katie. It was selfish, really, but Alicia couldn't bring herself to tell Katie it would be okay, because she herself had never felt pain equal to Katie's. She had never lost anyone close to her, and she had never had love to lose. She couldn't bring herself to touch Katie, because she was afraid sadness was contagious.

"Will you open it for me?" Katie's request was sudden and unexpected. It caught Alicia off guard, and it took her a moment to remember the tiny package she held in her hands.

"M-me?" Alicia stammered. "I don't know if I…"

"Please?"

The same urge to hold her friend in her arms washed over Alicia again, and this time it was too strong for a selfish feeling of self-preservation to stop her. She threw her arms around Katie, willing all her pain to go away, trying to protect her friend with her body.

And then, somehow, Alicia was sobbing. Bawling for her friend, crying because she wasn't strong enough to help Katie when she needed it most. Katie was crying too, but not in the same way. While Alicia was suddenly overcome with loud sobs, Katie shrank inside of her friend's warm embrace, curling into a ball and allowing herself to be held as silent tears slipped down her cheeks, slid off her chin, and hit the floor, disappearing into the wooden floorboards.

Alicia didn't know how long it was before she realized she was holding onto thin air. For a moment she was frightened. Images of Katie simply falling apart and melting into the floor flashed through her mind, before she opened her eyes and saw that Katie hadn't disappeared, but instead had somehow managed to slip, quietly and carefully, through Alicia's arms, and was sitting next to her on the window seat, again staring at that same unseen cloud, as if nothing had happened.

Alicia wanted to say something, but she could see that there was nothing more she could do for Katie. Out of her own selfishness, she set the package carefully next to Katie's thigh, praying Katie wouldn't ask her to open it again. That was something that, for some reason, she just couldn't do.

But Katie, although terrified of what she would find beneath hurriedly wrapped brown parchment, was too nice to try and stop Alicia. Because she knew that her friend would have done it, had she asked.

Katie knew the cloud wasn't there. It had disappeared, shortly after he had. But for a short time, the smoke had lingered in the air, something for Katie to hold on to, something for her to see, even if only for a moment longer. And in that moment, she had a little piece of Fred left. She couldn't let that cloud of smoke go, even if it had already gone.

Slowly and deliberately, without taking her eyes off the spot where the cloud had been, Katie slid her hand across the window seat until it touched the cool paper of the package. Holding her breath, she tore the paper carefully, still not looking at the spot where her hand was, as if looking at it would make it disappear.

The paper came off easily in her hand, and Katie jerked her hand away as if the small object had burned her. She didn't notice, of course, that there was a letter on top of it, and the swift motion was enough to knock it off the seat and under the couch.

Allowing her fingers to brush against the small item Fred had left her, Katie could tell almost what it was, and she couldn't for the life of her figure out why Fred would give her a Rememberall. Picking it up, however, she saw that it wasn't a Rememberall at all, but a small globe, with two miniature people in it.

The people were standing near a lake. They were so tiny Katie couldn't make out their features, but she would have known that shade of red hear anywhere.

Katie's mouth fell open in awe as tiny clouds formed above the two figures, and little raindrops began to pour onto them. As you should have figured out, the they did not run from the rain, and Katie knew this, but she was still filled with happiness as she watched the tiny people embrace. Without warning, the clouds dissolved, and the cycle started over again.

Katie felt tears welling up in her eyes, and she realized that she had finally let her eyes leave the spot in the sky where her little bit of smoke had been. Her gaze darted across the sky desperately, but she couldn't find it again.

Clutching her tiny glass ball to her heart, Katie doubled over again, but she did not cry. She had her little piece of Fred, and it wasn't a bit of elusive smoke. It was something she could hold in her hands, something she could feel and touch, and press against her heart.

Katie watched in awe as the tiny people in her globe kissed again. And again. And again. She sighed each time the clouds disappeared and they broke apart, but the tiny couple were never far apart. They lived in the moment. The exact same moment, over and over and over again.

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**Leysa, I hope you read this chapter. You reviewed anonymously, so I couldn't reply, but I wanted you to know that your review made my day, and I wanted to say I'm really glad you think so highly of my story. I also wanted you to know that your review alone was enough to make me want to make this a full story. I hope this chapter is as good as the first one!**


	3. Blaspheme

"Did you know you look like a toad?"

Katie's voice was dead. She hadn't intended to say this out loud. The statement had barely even had time to register in her mind before it came out of her mouth. if Katie hadn't felt so dead inside, she might have laughed as she watched Umbridge's face turn red. Then again, maybe not. She had most likely just gotten herself into a load of trouble.

It had been nearly seven hours since Fred and George had left school, and Katie was still sitting in the window seat in the common room when Angelina found her, turning her little globe in her hands, never looking away from it, for fear she would miss something.

"Miss Bell," Umbridge said sharply. Katie decided she had an unbelievable annoying voice. She thought perhaps it was best not to voice this opinion.

Katie couldn't remember the walk to Umbridge's office. All she could remember was resisting Angelina when she had told her she needed to leave the globe in the common room.

"No!" Katie had said. It was probably the most emotion she'd felt since Fred had left. She would not leave her globe behind.

"Katie!" Angelina pleaded. "We have to go to Umbridge's office. "Surely you realize she'll take it from you."

It had taken the better part of fifteen minutes, but finally Angelina had been able to convince Katie her globe would be safest left in Gryffindor Tower.

"I am sure you all know why you are here?" Umbridge implored, a fake smile plastered on her face, directly contradicting the contempt in her eyes as she gazed up the four students.

While Angelina, Alicia, Katie, and Lee were all perfectly aware that Umbridge wanted to question them about Fred and George, they all remained stubbornly quiet.

"No?" Umbridge asked. "Well, some tea then, while I tell you."

Without taking her eyes off the delinquents, Dolores Umbridge waved her wand, and four teacups appeared in front of them, filled and steaming.

"Drink up."

Not knowing what to do, but smart enough not to drink the tea, three of the teenagers stood awkwardly, confused. Katie, on the other hand, with nothing to lose and acting out of a hatred for the self-proclaimed headmistress, lifted her cup, and sipped the hot tea.

Of course, if you knew Katie Bell, you would know that she couldn't bear hot tea, and would always wait until it was cooled. But Dolores Umbridge did not know Katie, not well anyway, and was quite pleased that she had tricked at least one of them into taking the Veritaserum, when in actuality Katie hadn't even let it touch her lips.

"Now," Umbridge said, never letting down her cheerful pretense. "Do you know why you're here?"

"No," Katie lied smoothly. "I'm not very bright."

Umbridge looked skeptical, but continued. "You are here to tell me about Fred and George Weasley. Did you know they were leaving?"

"No," Katie replied, the lie stinging her tongue. "They didn't tell anyone."

"Oh?" Umbridge asked, her patience clearly wearing thin. "And did they leave you anything?"

"No," Katie told her. "Why would they? We barely even knew each other."

Before Umbridge had a chance to respond, Katie continued. "Although, they did say something about a secret weapon to get rid of the High Inquisitor."

Alicia could have sworn she saw Umbridge's ears visibly stand up, and Katie kept talking.

"It was designed for catching frogs," Katie said. "But they said it would work for toads too."

"Detention, Miss Bell!" Umbridge said before Katie even finished her sentence. "In my office, now. The rest of you may leave."

The tea disappeared, as did Umbridge's smile. Alicia, Angelina, and Lee stayed where they were, their feet rooted to the spot out of fear for their friend.

Katie walked purposefully into Umbridge's office, not turning around to look at her friends. She knew they would leave if she didn't argue with Umbridge.

Katie thought she was going to throw up. Umbridge's office was pink, everywhere, and there were plates with pictures of kittens on the walls. It reminded Katie a bit of her Aunt Norma, who always pinched her cheeks and told her how tall she was getting.

"Lines, Miss Bell," Umbridge snapped, and Katie was startled. She hadn't noticed the woman come back into the room. "You will use that quill there."

"I haven't any ink," Katie said blandly, though of course she had heard of this quill. She had never had to use it, however, because of Fred. He protected her from it, by taking the blame for anything she was a part of. The thought made Katie want to cry and throw up all at the same time.

Katie swallowed her tears and braced herself against the pain that she knew was imminent. She refused to let Umbridge see her pain.

"You won't need any ink," Umbridge said, her voice sickeningly sweet. "Write, 'I will not blaspheme.'"

Katie wrote the first _I_, grinding her teeth together as the flesh on her hand was torn apart. _Will not blaspheme._

Taking a deep breath, Katie did not hesitate before starting the next line. She would not give Umbridge that satisfaction.

_I will not blaspheme. I will not blaspheme. I will not blaspheme. I will not blaspheme. I will not blaspheme. I will not blaspheme. I will not blaspheme. I will not blaspheme._

Katie wasn't sure how many times she wrote it. Was it twenty? Fifty? A hundred? All she knew was that the pain was unbearable. But she would not--could not--cry. Fred had been forced to feel this tearing, burning feeling countless times, more than a few of them because of her. Never once had he complained. She wouldn't either.

"You may leave, Miss Bell," Umbridge said finally, realizing she was not going to get a reaction from this particular student.

Katie stood up abruptly, walking out in quick, jerky movements rather than the swift, dignified motion she'd been hoping for. Still, she did not cry.

As soon as Katie was out of the Defense Against the Dark Arts classroom, Katie curled into a ball on the floor, the tears flowing across her skin as she clutched her bleeding hand.

Someone slipped something round and cool into her hand, and Katie held it to her heart, allowing Alicia to tend to her cuts.

"Katie," Angelina said in what she hoped was a soothing manner. "We found this under the couch. You dropped it earlier."

She handed Katie a crumpled piece of paper. It had his handwriting.

_Dear Katie,_

_I know it isn't much, but it's all I have to give you at the moment. I'm sure you've figured out that the two little people are you and me. I thought it fit. I made two of them, and every night before I go to bed I will look at mine and think, Wow, that is one lucky bloke down there. And here I am, the same lucky bloke. It doesn't feel like it, though, when I know I have to leave you. I'll miss you, more than you can imagine. But I promise you, no matter what, we'll see each other soon enough._

_Love always,_

_Fred._


	4. Uneccessary Spells

"Katie, this is stupid."

Alicia's tone was low and firm, the type of voice Katie had come to associate with Molly Weasley over the years. Katie ignored her friend, however, as she was already perfectly aware of the stupidity of her plan.

"Katie," Alicia said again, "this is-"

"I heard you the first time," Katie interrupted matter-of-factly. "And I already know."

"And dangerous," Alicia added, crossing her arms. Alicia's overactive maternal instincts always made Katie want to hug her and shoot her at the same time. While she knew it was always good to have someone on your side, it wasn't exactly the biggest comfort in the world knowing that that someone was the person who would be trying to talk you out of it every step of the way.

"Naturally," Katie replied, keep her tone light as she laced up her long, black boots and slid her wand into the left one.

Angelina sighed heavily. "Katie, don't do this," she pleaded.

"Are you going to help me or not?" Katie asked stubbornly, searching for an elastic to tie her hair back with.

"Hell yeah!" Lee answered, raising his hand for a high five. Katie didn't pay him any attention. Embarrassed, Lee let his arm fall limply against his side, like a piece of cooked spaghetti. Lee missed having the twins around, always laughing and slapping each other's hands. Lee knew he would always be a third wheel when it came to Fred and George, but they made him feel like a part of something, like he was hilarious and unique and just as brilliant as them. Plus it was hard on him, seeing Katie so sad without Fred. It was hard on all of them.

"Don't encourage her!" Angelina admonished Lee, smacking his arm. Lee yelped, holding his wounded arm in his hand and grumbling incoherently at her. Angelina didn't notice.

"Katie, please don't do this," she repeated, her desperation evident in her voice. "For us?" realizing her pleas had fallen on deaf ears, she tried a different approach. "For Fred?"

Katie stopped short, her hair falling messily around her face as she let go of it, the elastic flying from her hands and landing somewhere behind her bed. Had she been thinking, she would have realized the chances of finding it again were close to nil, but at the moment she didn't care. In the two weeks since Fred had left this was the angriest she had felt.

Katie froze, glaring at Angelina with such intensity in her bright green eyes that her friend dropped her gaze, unable to meet them.

"For Fred?" Katie deadpanned. "For _Fred_?" she repeated, louder, her voiced tinged with hysteria. In a flash she had pulled her wand from her boot, pressing the tip against her best friend's throat.

"That woman is the reason Fred left," Katie hissed. Angelina gulped, nodding.

Suddenly realizing what she was doing, Katie dropped her wand as if it had burned her, and it hit the floor with a dull thud. She tuned around swiftly, not looking at Angelina, who had gone pale.

"Sorry," Katie muttered, embarrassed.

"S'alright," Angelina said quietly, sharing a significant look with Angelina.

And that was how Angelina, Alicia, and Lee found themselves following Katie down a deserted corridor at midnight, searching for Umbridge's office.

Katie couldn't figure out how they did it. Fred had once made a vague reference to a map, but he'd refused to go into detail. At the moment, the four friends were all seriously wishing they had some fort of map.

"You've never done with without Fred, have you?" Lee asked offhandedly, observing Katie's knee-length black boots.

Katie shushed him, a blush creeping over her face. "He never let me wear them when I helped him pull a prank," she muttered lamely. "He said they were impractical." Katie refused to admit out loud that he was right. Her feet were killing her.

"I think it's through here," Katie whispered loudly, gesturing toward a door in front of them on the left side. The group had mixed feelings about having reached their destination.

Lee was thrilled to be pranking again, even if it was without Fred and George. He had been afraid that his seventh year was going to be rather anticlimactic after six years of pranking with Fred and George and then graduating with nothing to show for it.

Alicia was hoping Katie would come to her senses and stop this before she made a horrible mistake. This was stupid and they were all going to get caught and get into trouble, Alicia just knew it.

Angelina wanted Katie to be happy. She just wished she could be sure this was what Katie really wanted.

And Katie just wanted revenge. This woman had made Fred leave. Fred was everything to Katie. He was her port in the storm. When Katie's parents had died, he had been there, holding her until she couldn't cry anymore. She had never let anyone else see her cry, but Fred was special. Fred was all she had. And this woman had taken that away.

"Come on!" Katie hissed, opening the door to Umbridge's room as quietly as she could. As soon as she was inside, she turned to her friends. "I'm sorry," she whispered to them.

"For what?" Angelina asked, confused.

"For this," Katie responded, closing the door in their faces and locking it magically as best she could. "I can't let you get in trouble because of me," she told them through the crack in the door. Then she made her way to Umbridge's office.

The meowing kittens had to be first. They were horrible and ceaseless and Katie just wanted to smash them. Instead, with a flick of her wand, they were replaced. Warts for whiskers, slimy skin where fur used to be, a horrible, although somehow less obnoxious croaking noise filling the room. _Perfect_.

The next spell was a little trickier. It took three tries for Katie to get it just right. "Shoot!" she muttered, buggering up the second try and attempting it a third. There, she thought with satisfaction, watching toad after real live toad spill out of the drawers in Umbridge's desk.

Surveying her handiwork, Katie let her guard down for a moment, smiling at her own job well done.

"Miss Bell," came a shrill his from behind her, and Katie jumped at least two feet in the air.

"P-p-proffesor!" Katie cried, turning around as she hurriedly tried to regain her composure. "I-I was, uh…" Katie trailed off, deciding it would be wisest to not try and deny her actions.

An hour later, Angelina, Alicia, and Lee were again waiting for Katie outside of Umbridge's classroom, and they held her as she sobbed and Alicia wrapped a bandage around the words, _I will not perform unnecessary spells._

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**AN: I hope you guys don't think I'm dragging this story out too much. I rather like the way it's going, but I can't be sure how my reader's will take it. Please let me know how you feel, I love reading reviews!**


	5. Naughty Boys

**AN: Hello! I think I'm finally back, and better than ever! You guys can thank the Beatles for this chapter, because I was inspired while listening to Lucy in The Sky With Diamonds.**

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"Hi."

Fred blinked once. Twice. Three times. "Hello," he said finally, his tone bland.

"I'm Cynthia," the girl said happily, extending her hand towards Fred. He smiled politely and shook it. She had short, blonde hair and big brown eyes that reminded Fred of a doe. She was tall and thin. And he couldn't figure out for the life of him what she wanted.

"Fred," he replied simply.

"I know," Cynthia replied, then turned red. "I mean…uh, I've seen you around…"

"Oh," was all Fred could come up with.

"I was wondering, actually," Cynthia began. "If you might like to get a drink with me?" The request came out as more of a question, as if she were asking Fred rather than telling him what she'd been thinking.

Poor Fred! His wit escaped him temporarily, seeming to flee at the first sight of a female who wasn't Katie, and he was speechless. He couldn't understand why this stranger was asking him out. Didn't she realize he had a girlfriend?

No, he realized suddenly. She didn't.

Taking his silence for rejection, Cynthia blushed profusely, mumbling an apology and turning as quickly as possible, starting to walk away.

"Wait!" Fred called after her, embarrassed by his momentary lapse in conversational skills. "Uh…have you met my brother George?"

That night, Fred paced back and forth in the living room of the twins' small flat, biting his lip and wringing his hands.

"So, we need some ideas for new products," George said conversationally, his tone that of someone who was perfectly aware no one was listening.

"I'm going crazy!" Fred cried, still pacing. "I have to see her."

"Yes, good idea," George replied thoughtfully. "But will it sell?"

"But how?" Fred wondered aloud, agitated.

"I don't know," George mused, neither twin actually listening much to the other. "Perhaps we could bottle it and sell it as a type of perfume…"

Fred looked at George. "Wait, what?" he asked, confused.

"What?" George replied stupidly, and there was an awkward silence for a moment.

"Floo powder!" Fred exclaimed suddenly, leaving his twin to decipher the odd conversation on his own. Practically throwing himself at the fireplace, he shouted, "Gryffindor Common Room!" just before falling into the green flames.

A chocked scream was the first thing he heard, just before he barreled into the love of his life, knocking her into the side of an armchair.

"Kates!" he cried, a grin spreading over his face before he kissed her. Shocked, Katie didn't have time to register anything that had happened, and when Fred pulled back, he saw that she was wide-eyed and more than a little surprised.

"Fred," she breathed, disbelieving. "Y-you're here!"

"I'm here," he assured her, kissing her again, lightly. "I'll always be here."

"Fred," Katie repeated, tears forming in her eyes. "You're here!" She threw her arms around her boyfriend's neck and began to kiss him, not even thinking about the fact that they were still sitting on the floor in the Gryffindor Common Room. "I missed you."

"I missed you more, Fred replied, taking bother of her hands in his. "And I-"

Katie bit her lip as he stopped suddenly, his thumb tracing the scars on her left hand. "I will not blaspheme, he read in a monotone, lifting their clasped hands to eye level. "I will not perform unnecessary spells. Katie, what is this?" he demanded, sounding hurt.

"I-I…she-I…" Katie was at a loss for words.

"How could you do this?" Fred asked her angrily. "How could you go and get yourself in trouble like that? You have to stay safe!" Now he sounded frantic and panicked.

"She made you leave!" Katie retorted. "That woman--that monster!--is the reason you're gone! And you expected me to just sit here? And do what--knit? Shall I start making hats for you, waiting until you come back!? That isn't me Fred!" she yelled hysterically, tears clouding her vision.

"So you're going to get yourself killed?" he asked. "Is that what you're going to do? As some sort of horrible payback for me leaving you?"

And then she slapped him. It was just a reflex, something her mother had told her to do if a man ever hurt her. She didn't register until after she had done it that her mother meant physical harm, nut this burning feeling in the pit of her stomach.

Fred turned and, throwing the last of his Floo Powder into the fireplace, left.

The next day, a decree went out that all fireplaces in the castle were closed to Floo travel, and Katie had a new scar that read: _I will not sneak around with naughty boys._


	6. Punishment

The rest of the school year passed by painfully slowly for Katie Bell. Every class, every meal, every lonely night was highlighted by a new heightening of her senses that Katie could only imagine must be what they call "heartbreak".

Fred worked late. Sometimes one day would bleed directly into another, and George would come downstairs in the morning only to find Fred sitting at his desk in the same clothes he had worn the night before.

Angelina and Alicia cried for her. That was all they could do. They knew that this misery Katie felt, this inhuman pain, pulled her off the face of the Earth, took her to levels where even her best friends could not touch her.

George had always been able to read Fred's mind, and it worked both ways. But even he could not fathom the pain Fred held inside, and this inability to understand distanced them, and no matter how hard George pushed, he could not reach his brother.

Christmas break was Katie's only lifeline, the source of hope she desperately clung to. With nowhere to go, she would be headed to the Burrow, the same as any other year. She prayed that she would be able to make up for her mistake.

Fred wondered how he could have done this to her. He had hurt her so much more than just leaving her, and it seemed he would never stop. He didn't deserve her, and so he stayed away.

On the first day of Christmas holiday, Katie was dead to the world. She walked slowly, purposefully, ate nothing, and gracefully avoided meeting anyone's eye. She boarded the train carefully, weak, an old woman despite her youth. Lack of food and sleep played its role, but you didn't have to be a healer to know that, in all honestly, it was lack of hope that did it.

Fred couldn't bring himself to accompany his parents to the train station, despite everyone's insistence. Some shrugged and said he was still angry, others said it was because without her, he didn't have the energy to walk, but in all honesty, he was punishing himself, keeping her just out of reach so that he might feel the pain he had inflicted upon her.

"Molly."

The word came out so quietly it could have been the wind, and it brought tears to Molly Weasley's eyes. As she looked at Katie, this young woman who had once been so beautiful, glowing even, but who was withering away before her very eyes, Molly was afraid even to hug her, fearful that she would break.

But hug her she did, and once she had her in her arms, a girl she had always looked at as a second daughter, Molly never wanted to let Katie go.

"Bill, dear, grab Katie's trunk, won't you?" Molly said, smoothing Katie's hair as she held her, walking as they embraced, as if she were trying to protect Katie from whatever horrors that were just beyond her own reach.

"Katie and Harry are here!" Molly called to the occupants of Number 12 Grimmauld Place once they were safely inside the doorway. Everyone rushed to greet Harry, praising him for his strange rescue of Mr. Weasley, while Katie wordlessly slunk out of the way of all the chatter.

"He's upstairs."

Katie screamed very unceremoniously as the Weasley twin whom had not stolen her heart seemingly appeared from nowhere. His eyes widened in shock, obviously not having intended to scare her, and he reached out his arms reflexively, as if fearful that she would collapse before his very eyes. It seemed, Katie thought bitterly, that everyone had that fear lately.

The old Katie, the one who laughed and smiled and made jokes, would have faked ignorance. "Who?" she would have asked. Not this Katie. This Katie just stared blankly into the face that was nearly identical to but seemed so far from the one she wanted so desperately to see.

"He misses you so much, Katie." George moved as if to touch her face, hug her maybe, but Katie sidestepped him so quickly but nonchalantly that it was hard to tell she had moved at all.

"I'm sorry," George said, looking wounded. "I just…"

"I know." They were the first words she had spoken in days, and they tasted strange on her tongue. Lies taste foul, bitter, but the truth is a much worse flavor, sickeningly sweet, it burns the tip of your tongue and bubbles in your throat until you wish you could take it back.

She did know. She understood, really and truly she did, that all anybody wanted was to help her, but she couldn't allow it. She was Katherine Elizabeth Bell, and she did not need to be fixed, because she was unbreakable. She was, because she made herself that way. A heart that has been broken many times must eventually harden so thickly that it scarcely even retains it's shape anymore.

But even the thickest of metals will melt at some temperature, and Katie's chest had never felt so warm as it did when she saw him there, descending the stairs without looking in her direction, led by some unseen force and blind to the world around him.

For the first time in far too long, Katie longed to reach out. She wished she were strong enough to hold out her arms, touch his face, ask him to hold her, because suddenly she didn't feel like she could stand.

Her mouth fell open, but no sound would come out, and when-after what deemed like an eternity-he finally noticed her, his mouth opened too, and while they both stood, dumbfounded, mouths agape, staring into each other's eyes, neither of them noticed George quietly slip from the room.

"I missed you," Katie finally uttered, breathlessly. She felt tears well up behind her eyes, trying hard to break the surface she had carefully sealed shut.

"I…me too."

Neither of them made a move to breach the infinite space keeping them apart, though both of them hated having it there.

"I love you."

Neither could be sure who said it first, but once it was neither cared. The single word acted like a magnet that drew them together, and right as their hands intertwined and their tears mixed as their faces pressed together, the sounds could be heard from outside-though neither was paying attention-of raindrops gently beating against the roof and running down the windowpanes.

**AN: Wow, sorry about the looooooong wait you guys! Hope this chapter makes up for it! More soon! I promise! Please review!**


	7. Fire

Their time together sped by, and Katie hated it. Every moment they were together, of which there were many, was precious, and she would have killed to make it last only one more second. Fred wished there was something—anything—he could do to have her longer, to keep her by him just a little longer so that for just a moment longer he could be absolutely sure she was safe.

But all too soon they were standing in front of Platform 9 3/4, and Fred was ever so gently wiping the tears from her cheeks.

"Come on Kates," he said, putting on a playful smile despite the fact he was falling apart just as fast as she was. "It won't be that long until summer. And then we'll have plenty of time together. Too much, in fact. You shall probably tire of me and then I will have to win you back with flowers and chocolates. Won't that be fun?"

But despite her appears to other, Katie only had enough resilience to stand, and joking was a foreign language to her. "I will never get tired of you," she whispered, laying her head against his chest. Fred wrapped his arms around her tightly in the vain hope that perhaps his sweater could somehow convey his love to her in a way that words never could.

Mrs. Weasley would have gladly thrown herself off a cliff if it meant she didn't have to be the one to pull them away from one another, but in reality she was probably the one best suited for the job. Gently she placed a hand on Katie's shoulder, a gesture that seemed to convey her message of timeliness and sympathy all in one.

Katie didn't say anything for fear if she did she would let loose an entirely new wave of tears, but it was okay. No words were needed, and both of them knew it.

Katie had only just stepped onto the train when she spotted Angelina, Alicia, and Lee, all of whom had gone home for the holidays but whom she had avoided on the train out. This time, however, she slid open the door to their compartment, knowing she would be welcomed back, because that's what friends did. They didn't question your methods, they accepted you unconditionally.

It was obvious the moment she stepped in that something had changed, and Angelina was the first one to wrap her arms around Katie. "We missed you," she whispered into her ear. Katie didn't mention that they'd only been apart a few weeks. She knew perfectly well what Angelina meant.

Katie was quiet on the way back, but the difference between now and a few weeks prior was still blatantly obvious. She listened. She responded. _She cared. _And even though tears were still fresh in Katie's eyes, Lee decided quietly to himself (though of course, being a guy he could never admit to thinking something so girly) that tears of longing were much better than tears of misery. Because with one you're crying because you have lost the thing that is what you live for, but with the other you have nothing to live for at all. All of this he knew simply by looking into Katie's eyes and being thankfully that the fire had returned to them, if not the roaring flame it used to be, but the kind of warm, cozy fire that gives you the feeling that maybe the world is good after all.

It would be silly to recount what you already know, a waste of your time and my own, so I will tell you only this: life went on. For the rest of the year, though there was much sorrow and more grief than Hogwarts had experienced in a long time, there was joy. There were dinners at which friends laughed together, and nights where friends cried together, and there were classes where teachers taught students all they had learned in their year, in the hope that maybe life would continue to go on.

**AN: Okay, this chapter's kinda short, but there'll be another one up soon, I promise! I know I left you guys hanging for way too long, but now I go to the library after school almost every day until my mom gets off work, so I have way more time on my hands than I know what to do with, plus a computer lab at my disposal. Sounds like a good combination, no? Anyway, hope you guys liked it, please review!**

**Oh an by the way, I don't own Harry Potter! I know, you're all so very shocked. Get over it. :P Just kidding! (About the get over it thing, not the disclaimer thing. Sadly, I really don't own Harry Potter...)**


	8. Message To My Readers

**A MESSAGE TO MY READERS**

VERY IMPORTANT, PLEASE READ

Honey, I'm home! Yes, I'm at it again. For a while I had decided that I was going to focus on more productive writing, but you know what? Fanfiction is fun, and I miss it! So here I am, writing again.

I am, however, writing under a new pen name. My new account is Princess Corkey, and below you will find a list of stories that will be on that as well as a link.

* * *

New Profile: .net/u/3790840/Princess_Corkey

**Lost In Another Time**: This story was so much fun to write, and I reread it often for inspiration, but I recently realized how much I've grown as a writer since then, and it makes me wish I could rewrite it, and I realized, why don't I? So here it is, the remastering of Lost, now called **Her Name Was Alexandra**. Three chapters are already up. Not much different yet, but I am hoping to add to it. I want to explore the Lily/James relationship in it a little further, as well as add a few more supporting characters and straighten out the timeline. Suggestions? Love 'em! Link: .net/s/8151596/1/Her_Name_Was_Alexandra

**My Other Half: **MOH will be remastered much the same as Lost, under the name **The Other Half**. I would like Allyson to have a few personality changes, making her less unpredictable so to convey that she is more vulnerably than I initially showed. Also, I would like this story to be a little longer and completely change the last chapter for I look back and feel it is a terrible ending.

**Kiss Me In The Rain, Fallen Angel, Look Into The Future, Delusions of Grandeur, **: Existing chapters will remain mostly the same, possible minor tweaking, but the story will be reposted and continued on the new account.

**Tension, Uncomfortable, A Forgotten Story**: Will be tweaked slightly for typos, but otherwise will remain the same and simply reposted on the new account.

**Never Alone, Meet The Family, All's Fair in Love and Friendship, Katie Bell: Socially Inept: **Existing chapters will be rewritten and then story will be continued on the new account. **(All's fair will be shortened to simply that. I don't like longer titles for most stories.)**

**My Star Chaser (To become simply Star Chaser), Not My Night, and Cinderella Masquerade, Lily Potter: Daughter, Sister, and Disappointment (To become Lily Potter: Disappointment)**: Possibly rewritten, but lower on the priority list. Saving for a rainy day or once all above projects are completed.


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